Gallup Pakistan, the Pakistani affiliate of Gallup International Association, has been churning out publications and research reports for the past 30 years. Amongst many subjects, those being, consumer behavior, media studies, public policy and socio – economic research, over the years, its grasp over marketing has become a forte, with over 25 years worth experience. Marketers look forward to reading their reports and it was the recent publication of the report by the name of “Gallup Pakistan’s Annual Advertising Expenditure Data 2013,” in collaboration with Aurora Magazine, that came out to be the Heavenly Commandments, as it were, sent for the policy-makers to help in making important strategic decisions.
Its breakdown in its spending associated with advertising in the previous financial year 2012-2013, was divided into ‘media’ and ‘client’ spending on advertising, as has been laid out in this article. Its link to the Telecom industry is very hard to ignore, as the companies, spearheading the advertising campaigns include PTCL, Mobilink, Telenor and Ufone as taking up a huge space for TV and print mediums.
It was important to analyze, thus, if this industry is advertising heavily in this domain and all the intricacies linked with it.
- Media Spending – the ‘Meaty Bits’
- Total Advertising expenditure: The spending on all mediums has increased, through all verticals, those being TV, Print, Outdoor, DM/POP/ Brand Activation/ Misc, Radio and the internet
- TV: TV accounts for 47% increase in total advertising revenue. The top nes channel includes Deo News, and on number two is Hum TV, as the country’s entertainment channel.
- Print: 98% of all printed advertising revenue is generated from newspapers, while 2 % comes from magazines. Jang and Akbar-e-Jehan are the top newspaper and magazine respectively.
- There has been a significant dip in the foreign television channels, from 16.40% to 9.87%.
- Client Spending – the Meaty Bits
- Print Media
- Share of classified advertising has seen a sharp decline by 16%. A number of people subscribe to free classifieds on websites. This is more than likely to grow in the coming years, and makes it worthwhile to watch numbers on this one.
- Election campaigning through digital mediums was seen in the previous year May 2013. It would be interesting to see how the trend catches on in the subsequent years, especially in the next general elections.
- Telephone and Mobile companies shifted gears on this one by moving onto other digital mediums, its share having declined by 3% last year, and again a decrease this year, albeit by 1%.
- TV
- Product Categories
- The amount of money spent on advertising by clients on TV is mostly spent by Telephone and mobile communications.
- News and business channels, as well as entertainment channels, are bombarded, first, by products in the ‘others’ category, and next, largely by Telephone/ Mobile Communications.
- It is interesting to note how Telephone and Mobile Communications category dominated the Cooking Channels in the top three slots, and that too, among all those detergents, a seemingly distant association.
It is a possibility that the market for cooking channels itself is seen as a great medium for advertisements, depicted in the Gallup’s decision to track these separately for the first time ever in its research.
- Companies
- The top ten companies seen on TV include three that are technologically related. These include Telenor, Mobilink and PTCL. While Telenor’s advertising spending on TV has increased, Mobilink’s has remained the same, and PTCL’s has seen a small dwindling of its advertising spending.
- Half of the top ten companies that spend on advertising minutes on TV, as seen on the news and business channels, include those related to the Telecom sector: PTCL, Mobilink, QMobile, Telenor and Warid, in the order of their spending on TV advertising. PTCL’s and Mobilink’s spending has decreased.
This, one can understand to be the result of the huge advertising campaigns finally paying off, as both PTCL and Mobilink have a large customer base in the country. In contrast to this, QMobile’s spending increased by 1% and Telenor and Warid too, seemed to have taken greater interest in TV advertisements on news and business channels than the previous year.
- Brands
- Spending of brands on TV by Telecom companies include Ufone and Telenor Talkshawk.
- No Telecom brand exists as the top ten brands on the news and business channels. However, Telenor and Ufone, the two brands, continue to bombard the entertainment channels as the only two Telecom companies; although Ufone’s share of spending has actually seen a steep decline on the entertainment channels by 2%.
Conclusion
In the backdrop of much activity in the Telecom industry, the financial year between 2012 to 2013 period saw an increase in advertising. Although the spending on the Internet has still not increased to what would have been thought of as a lot – the increase has only been by about 1%. One can see that this is an important medium for Telecom and mobile companies, but apart from that there has not been much else.
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